Like
so many of his works, the songcycle György Kurtág created from settings
of tiny extractsfrom Franz Kafka's letters and diaries adds up to far
more than the sum of its minuscule parts.Scored for just soprano and
violin, the 40 numbers that make up Kafka Fragments range fromjust a
few seconds in length to several minutes, and the whole cycle lasts a
bit over an hour, itsformal planning and emotional plotting
fastidiously exact, with nothing wasted.

The programme begins with a choreographed version of Dutilleux's Three Strophes on the nameof Paul Sacher.